1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved combined ski boot and safety binding assembly adapted to engage the heel end of the ski boot by means of a pivoted heel clamping member to constitute a heel hold-down device. This invention is also concerned with the ski boot on the one hand and with the safety ski binding on the other hand forming together the above-defined assembly.
2. The Prior Art
Hitherto known heel hold-down devices of safety ski bindings comprise a so-called heel clamping or retaining member adapted to firmly and resiliently retain the heel end of the ski boot and press the same against the ski. In case of excessive vertical upward stress, due for example to a forward fall of the skier, the heel clamping member is moved upwards, generally by pivoting about a transverse horizontal axis, and eventually releases the boot.
After this release, the heel clamping member is normally held in its open position.
To reset the ski binding automatically, the heel clamping member is rigid with a lug or pedal adapted to be depressed by the bottom face of the boot sole when the boot is re-introduced into the ski binding in order to urge the heel clamping member back to its boot holding position.
This pedal is known notably through the first Certificate of Addition No. 81,385 to the French Pat. No. 1,294,261.
However, these known heel hold-down devices are objectionable for the following reasons:
the bottom face of a ski boot sole undergoes relatively fast wear when walking, so that the toe and heel portions thereof become more or less bevelled. Now, it is the bevelled portion of the heel that engages the boot resetting pedal. If this wear is excessive, in many instances the pedal stroke is too short, and therefore insufficient for restoring the heel clamping member to its operative position. This is of course very detrimental. PA1 on the other hand, snow may tend to accumulate between the pedal and the ski, thus preventing the heel clamping member from resuming completely its operative position.
It is the primary object of the present invention to avoid these known inconveniences by providing a combined ski boot and safety binding assembly of the automatic resetting type wherein the operation of the heel clamping member cannot be detrimentally affected by worn or bevelled edges at the toe and heel ends of the sole.
According to this invention, the heel end of the boot upper extends beyond the rear end of the sole and the heel clamping member consists of a lever having a contour shaped to permit its proper engagement by the rear end of the upper so as to cause this member to be reclosed upon the rear edge of the sole when the boot is refitted into the binding, a recess being provided between the rear ends of the upper and sole for engagement by said heel clamping lever.
Thus, when the skier engages the ski boot with the binding, it is the rear end of the boot upper, not the heel end of the sole, that depresses the heel clamping member and causes the latter to resume its operative or locking position upon the heel end of the boot sole.
Consequently, in case the heel end of the sole becomes worn and bevelled, the efficiency of the heel clamping member is not impaired.
This heel clamping member may be rigid with the ski binding body and at the same time fulcrumed to the ski binding body about a pivot member fixed in relation to the ski.
Other features and advantages of this invention will appear as the following description proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawing in which two typical forms of embodiment of the combined ski boot and safety binding according to this invention are illustrated diagrammatically by way of example.